Monday, February 25, 2008

Zoho

Vembu has a very exciting opportunity ahead of him. What the Chinese have done in manufacturing, he is showing that the Indians can do in software: undercut U.S. and European software makers dramatically. Not in information technology services. Not by body shopping. Vembu has done something few Indian entrepreneurs have been able to achieve--build a true "product" company out of India. This is not a head count-based business model.

And here's something that's seriously interesting:

"We hire young professionals whom others disregard," Vembu says. "We don't look at colleges, degrees or grades. Not everyone in India comes from a socio-economic background to get the opportunity to go to a top-ranking engineering school, but many are really smart regardless.

"We even go to poor high schools, and hire those kids who are bright but are not going to college due to pressure to start making money right away," Vembu continues. "They need to support their families. We train them, and in nine months, they produce at the level of college grads. Their resumes are not as marketable, but I tell you, these kids can code just as well as the rest. Often, better."

Rahul: Their Zoho range has received much better reviews than the corresponding Google product has; given this, their website could certainly be far better than its Google-ish appearance. Yes, I agree: their website could do with some improvement.

J.Madrasi: Rediff (like many other Indian media outlets) re-publishes stuff from other places. I guess this is also one of those articles obtained through the syndication route ...